I'm boiling some driftwood right now. Earlier it was just one piece (we found them both in our house) and then we found another piece and put it in with the first piece. I came back 5 minutes later and there was a bunch of dirty white and brown foam at the top of the pot!!! :shock: The water is now about as dark as dark coffee. The wood has a couple of places where there are outbreaks of little white spots. Does this driftwood have chemicals?! If so, can I boil them out? Is the other driftwood safe now? I took it out as soon as I noticed the foam. I have now skimmed off the foam (with a leaf, I wasn't going to use stuff I eat off of!) and a little remains. It actually doesn't smell bad. But then, some people think sharpies and gasoline don't smell bad either, but they both kill brain cells. So what should I do?? I think I noticed a couple of drops of white paint on it before I put it in, but I didn't think it would cause anything like this!

Freddy

11-21-2009 02:37 PM

Whew! false alarm. It turned out to be pine sap boiling out. Unfortunately you can't use pine as driftwood. At least my other driftwood's safe.

Angel079

11-21-2009 04:21 PM

Its totally normal for your water to look like coffee boiling DW. What would concern me is the 'white stuff'. Having found the pieces there's no telling if any chemicals or alike got in touch with it, so personally I'd not want to put it on my tank not knowing.